Reflections

And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields. And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

Kahlil Gibran

Excerpts from the children’s book “Cry, Heart, But Never Break” by Glenn Ringtved

Illustrations by Charlotte Pard

“Some people say Death’s heart is as dead and black as a piece of coal, but that is not true. Beneath his inky cloak, Death’s heart is as red as the most beautiful sunset and beats with a great love of life.”

Death proceeds to tell the children about two girls, Joy and Delight.

“They were bright and sunny and their days were full of happiness. The only shadow was their sense that something was missing. They didn’t know what, but they felt they couldn’t fully enjoy their happiness.”

Death goes on to tell a story of how their lives weren’t balanced until they met and fell in love with Sorrow and Grief. Death tells the children, it is the same with life and death. “What would life be worth if there were no death? Who would enjoy the sun if it never rained? Who would yearn for the day if there were no night?”

“Moments later, the children heard the upstairs window open. Then, in a voice somewhere between a cry and a whisper, Death said, ‘Fly, Soul. Fly, fly away.’ The curtains were blowing in the gentle morning breeze. Looking at the children, Death said quietly, ‘Cry, Heart, but never break. Let your tears of grief and sadness help begin new life.’”

“Ever after, whenever the children opened a window, they would think of their grandmother. And when the breeze caressed their faces, they could feel her touch.”

Especially in Weeping

Especially in weepingthe soul revealsits presenceand through secret pressurechanges sorrow into water.The first budding of the spiritis in the tear,a slow and transparent word.Then following this elemental alchemythought turns itself into substanceas real as a stone or an arm.And there is nothing uneasy in the liquidexcept the mineralanguish of matter.

Valerio Magrelli

Iwasaki Tsuneo 1917-2002

Grieving is sacred work. It has the power to take you deep into your Source, where you will have a glimpse of your true home. That is where you find peace.

Alexandra Kennedy

The Gate

I had no idea that the gate I would step throughto finally enter this world

would be the space my brother’s body made. He wasa little taller than me: a young man

but grown, himself by then,done at twenty-eight, having folded every sheet,

rinsed every glass he would ever rinse under the coldand running water.

This is what you have been waiting for, he used to say to me.And I’d say, What?

The song of the mourner is our invitation to turn our ears and tune our hearts to the great spiritual call of life: being of service to one another.

Chani Nicholas

All beauty of this world is wet with the dew of tears.

Thedor Haecker

After the loss of a loved one, many of us are left with old hurts, unhealed goodbyes, unsaid, love unexpressed. We grieve not only the person but also the hopes, dreams and unfulfilled expectation that we had for and with that person…. Your beloved is within reach–within you–much closer than you think. All that is keeping you from a sense of connection with your deceased loved one is your unused imagination. In the imagination, death does not end a relationship…. It is never too late to reconcile and heal your relationship with a deceased loved one.

Alexandra Kennedy

Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that all growth does not take place in the sunlight.

Joan Chittister

Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.

Thomas Moore

Grief is subversive, undermining the quiet agreement to behave and be in control of our emotions. It is an act of protest that declares our refusal to live numb and small. There is something feral about grief, something essentially outside the ordained and sanctioned behaviors of our culture. Because of that, grief is necessary to the vitality of the soul. Contrary to our fears, grief is suffused with life-force…. It is not a state of deadness or emotional flatness. Grief is alive, wild, untamed and cannot be domesticated. It resists the demands to remain passive and still. We move in jangled, unsettled and riotous ways when grief takes hold us us. It is truly an emotion of that rises from soul.

Francis Weller

Grief and gratitude are kindred souls, each pointing to the beauty of what is transient and given to us by grace.

Patricia Campbell Carlson

No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has emerged from the kingdom of night.

Elie Wiesel

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.

Joseph Campbell

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.

A.A. Milne

I saw grief drinking a cup of sorrow and called out, “It tastes sweet, does it not?” “You caught me,” grief answered, “and you’ve ruined my business, how can I sell sorrow when you know it’s a blessing?”

Rumi

Victor Brauner

When we descend all the way down to the bottom of a loss, and dwell patiently with an open heart, in the darkness and pain, we can bring back up with us the sweetness of life and the exaltation of inner growth. When there is nothing left to lose, we find the true self–the self that is whole, the self that is enough, the self that no longer looks to others for definition, or completion, or anything but companionship on the journey.

Elizabeth Lesser

Iwasaki Tsuneo 1917-2002

Perhaps the biggest paradox is that we can come again to love life even when we are mindful of death. Holding these apparent contradictions at once is a sign of wholeness–or healing–or shalom–words that have the same meaning linguistically. It helps us to love more courageously, to search in every moment for what is holy and eternal, to cherish each day and to cultivate life by caring for ourselves, each other, and the planet.

Rabbi Anne Brener

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and time to uproot…. a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to be silent and a time to speak…

Ecclesiastes 3:4

Mary Cassatt

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.